Coconut Chocolate Cake

 Recipe base from Restlesschipotle.com (LINK)

On my Bundt quest that has no particular end goal, I stumbled upon this recipe.
Whilst the description talked a big game, about the amazing pairing of coconut and chocolate, and rum, I found it difficult to believe that a recipe that only had coconut milk - which has a very delicate flavour - as its connection to coconut was going to be that flavoursome.

Now don't get me wrong, the cake batter was nice, and after a previous incident with too much density, I bought a new hand blender, and was really taking precautions not to overbeat the batter.

Batter

I unintentionally used under half of the chocolate from the recipe, but I didn't have enough dark chocolate anyway. I don't feel it hurt the recipe.

As the cake has an option of adding a cup of macadamia nuts, I would say that I would probably add a cup of desiccated coconut. This somewhat defeats the purpose of avoiding the texture, however I can't in all good conscious say that this is a coconut cake. Maybe adding tablespoon of coconut extract, or replacing the quarter cup of rum for Malibu could be an option.

with chocolate medley

My batter came out very velvety and rose magnificently from the pan as it was baking. Far too much batter for my 12 cup bundt. I don't blame the recipe, I should have recognised that it was too full, and made cupcakes with the remainder.

Bundt!

After turning the cake out, I decided in a moment of madness/genius to cut the bottom off the cake to even it up. I then discovered what is becoming a recurring nightmare for me: Density. Is that part still not baked properly?! I whipped it back into the oven with a foil hat for another 15-20 minutes, contradictorily still on its cooling rack. After this point I admitted defeat, and took it out to cool entirely.

Finished Product

As the Swedes say, kämpa kämpa. I finished the cake off by pouring half of the coconut rum sauce over it, and reserving the other half to heat up and pour over it the next day.

The cake was still demolished within 10 minutes, and whilst I was lurking in the sidelines, eagle-eyeing the cake and its inner appearance, I discovered to my wary yet somewhat happy bewilderment that the cake appeared to have repaired itself overnight! No dense, doughy patches or anything! Not sure how that happened, but I'm pleased... for now.

Triple Chocolate Merlot Bundt Cake

Recipe from Restless Chipotle (LINK)

Beautiful, extremely indulgent, chocolate cake

Requires around 600g of chocolate chips, and half a bottle of merlot for the cake and ganache.

I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate chips, pretty much 1:1.

The bundt tin I used was too small, so the cake rose above the edge, fortunately it didn't spill over. I felt this affected the baking time (1hr 10 minutes). I will get a larger tin for the next time I try this cake (which I will be doing)!*

My first ever Bundt

Whilst I appreciate that browned butter adds to the richness and depth of flavour, I think I will choose when to go through this process, depending on the intended consumers. My colleagues will probably not discern the difference between the flavours beyond 'chocolate', so if it is for them, I doubt I will go beyond just melting the butter.

The Cut

*I made my second attempt at this cake in March 2015, and following my notes, reduced the amount of batter in the tin. I may have been a bit too heavy handed with my reduction, as the cake that came out was pretty pitiful. I made cupcakes with the 'left over' batter, and they were pretty nice. I need to work out that happy fill point of the batter...

2nd attempt - March 2015